Meeting Friend in Budapest After 20 Years

Old Fence by Danube
185 mm, 1/2000, f2.8, ISO 100

Internet and photography are simply fantastic. All of a sudden you can find your friends from good old school times. It just happened to me. Got in touch with old time mate from high school - Greg - who happened to live in Budapest for now... and has similar interests i.e. photography. We simply had to meet.
So last weekend I spent in Budapest, Hungary, at his place to remember great old school times and took the opportunity to take snaps around the city. At the same time I tried to explain to Greg and his family some of my tips and tricks.
Photography wise it was tough Saturday, in the morning we had few minutes of showers and some clouds and I was hoping for more clouds but then the sun simply started to pour its light onto us, and that was it. I had to deal with harsh and flat light for the rest of the day. I have been to Budapest before quite few times but never had enough time to scroll around and to concentrate on shooting. This time it was different, my main objective was to scroll around together and shoot or mainly to find good spots for the future. Of course we started with the most known places and tried to take different photographs. I am not sure if I had fully managed that but I tried. I must spend few weeks in Budapest to really capture the feeling of this great city. Danube banks in Budapest are simply amazing and so much different to Vienna. There are so many spots you want to capture and so little time, especially with good light. Good sunny weather is not ideal for that purpose.

To deal with daylight sun I decided to use mainly my 10 stops grey filter to be able to use long exposures that would give me some different feelings. In general I like long exposures, pictures shot with 10-30 seconds or minutes show different reality. Like if we were somewhere frozen in longer chunks of time, like if we stopped by and the world kept spinning around by us and left us intact.
In some cases I also applied soft ND grad filters and also tested with Singh-Ray Gold-N-Blue polarizer. I wanted to transform dull scenes into something more interesting.
I am posting few examples.

We are by Budapest Citadel, Gelert's Hill, noon sun high in the sky slightly behind me. Composed the frame to get more clouds and wanted to pop-up some non-existing colours from flat light.
Mounted Gold-N-Blue polarizer and used 3 stops soft ND grad and 3 stops grey filter from Lee.
It is not ideal, but I still like it. Especially bluish sky and dark clouds. They remind me of Iron Maiden album's cover - Brave New World. You should see that cover to compare (and of course listen to the album!)...
Just cut off trees in front and crop square and it is like Brave New World cover....


27mm, 2 seconds exposure, f16, ISO 100. Reddish and bluish tints come from the polarizer.

Then we moved to Chain Bridge... well actually right under it.
I saved the bridge panorama for the following morning for the sunrise.

For the time being wanted different perspective from below it.
Bridge is above us, we are at rivers level, perhaps half a meter.
One leg of my tripod is actually in the water...
I needed long exposure at 3:00 p.m. and put 10 stops grey filter from B&W and 3 stops soft neutral density grad to darken the sky.
I like the effect of foggy water and feeling of dusk.
Foreground rocks add sense of depth to the frame.
Just tried to be a bit creative, the mood definitely does not like late sunny afternoon.

Settings:
27mm, 60 seconds, f16, ISO 100.

Full Moon over Hungarian Parliament
45mm, 10s, f13, ISO200

Then evening with its sunset came.
We are still by the Danube, what do you have to shoot? Of course Hungarian Parliament! We moved to the other side of the river to get good angle for parliament magnificent building. I needed 2-3 shots - one during sunset, one at dusk and then night shot. In all cases I was expecting to have some nice colourful reflections. Right after sunset all the buildings and bridges are illuminated by lights. I got all of them. They are available at my website. Here I am posting bonus shot... At one stage we noticed moon getting through layer of clouds. It was very very dim at the beginning and when it moved higher on the horizon it cleared completely. It's lost its red colour and became orange... we quickly ran along river bank to get the best angle of parliament and the moon to have it right on top of the main dome... and here is the result.
No filters used.

Sunday morning for us started at 05:00 a.m. Initially I had an idea to visit the same spot where we had shot parliament to have the rising sun in the frame, but then during the night... yes you sleep and thing about the shot... I changed my mind and thought we would go somewhere higher to have better city and Danube panorama.
We went to old town right above famous Chain Bridge overlooking Danube curve and the city.

Picture on the right was shot about half an hour before sunrise. Colours become vivid. This is one of the best moments to shoot. What I also love is the peace of the place. Almost no people, no traffic, the city sleeps.

27mm, 30 seconds, f11, ISO 200
2 stops ND hard grad over the sky

Morning started foggy and little bit cloudy and looked grey but then the world unleashed its power. As soon as sun got through the layer of clouds, big orange ball gave us something we waited for... Those are the moments you drag yourself of warm bed into the night.

This is hand held shot with no filters at all.
70mm, 1/160 sec, f5.6, ISO 200



In between I shot a panorama combined of 8 vertical shots:

I need weeks to shoot the place and will do so!
Thanks Greg for hospitality!

Cheer
Jerzy