Photoblog

What is Bund? The Bund or Waitan is a waterfront in central Shanghai and the one of the most famous touristic area of the city. Bund runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River in the eastern part of Huangpu District, from Yan’an Road (formerly Edward VII Avenue) in the south to Waibaidu Bridge (formerly Garden Bridge). Facts: The area along the river faces the modern architecture of Lujiazui in the Pudong District; making it one the most photographed vistas in China. The word “Bund” means an embankment or an embanked quay. The word originated from Persian word band, through Hindustani, having the meaning of embankment, levee or dam. There are various “bunds” in east Asia, probably named after the bunds/levees in Baghdad along the Tigris; the Baghdadi Jews, like the famous Sassoon family, might have given the name. This family immigrated and settled their businesses in Shanghai  and other port cities in east Asia in the 19th century. Lujiazu...

We are back from a great trip in the Northern part of Spain. There were 2 very intense weeks, with a lot of time spent in the trains and buses, with very good weather ( a bit too warm for this time of year) and with surprisingly few other photographers on the way. Our journey started in Bilbao, continued on the Basque coast in Sopellana and Bakio. On the way to Asturias we spent one night in Santander and then we explored the Asturian coast in Naves, Novellana, Villademoros and Luarca.  A few thoughts, while still fresh: the north of Spain is an area of exquisite beauty, where nature can be admired at its best. A blend of stunning beaches, tremendous shapes carved by the water during thousands of years, this area is an excellent location for an avid landscape photographer. On the other side, it is an area where non-spanish speaking travelers have difficulties communicating with locals and where infrastructure is really basic. It was not an extensive exploration by an...

This is an image that I processed using Photoshop CC, Topaz B&W Effects and Topaz Denoise. It is called “Tribute” as it is part of the Beisheim Center in Berlin, a tribute to American Art Deco architecture. I will start this review with a bit of background information. I am a long time user of various Topaz plugins. The first ever Photoshop plugin that I used was Topaz Denoise , which is still part of my current workflow (I remember at that point I was not even using Photoshop but Gimp and it was quite a struggle to make Topaz plugins working inside it). Later on, during the period when i was experimenting with HDR, I was a happy user of Topaz Adjust and Topaz Details. Now most of my work is in black and white, so I had explore more or less all the conversions techniques, from simple Film&Filter, to more complicated channel mixer techniques in Photoshop and more sophisticated plugins like Topaz B&W  Effects and Nik Silver Efex.   Also, it is ...