London/St. Petersburg/Iceland

[Ronin]

Going to these three places soon (as well as Finland and Norway I think). Anyone have any tips or pointers for photos? Hoping to do a little video and time lapse as well.

Levitron, looking at you...

Not looking forward to lugging my 5D and gear though. Can't wait for the day they make full frame mirrorless...

[Senna4ever]

Look at @jasonfitzgibbon on Instagram. His shots from his recent trip to Iceland are incredible!

[nah]

Full frame mirrorless...like a Sony RX1 or the RX1R or the upcoming FF NEX?

[Hondaracer]

Went to Finland and St Petersburg 2 years ago, I can post some photos and some advice when I get home

Been to like 5-6 euro cities and st.petersburg is probably my favorite place I've ever been

Edit* how are you getting to Russia? Through Finland?
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[lowside67]

Originally Posted by nah

Full frame mirrorless...like a Sony RX1 or the RX1R or the upcoming FF NEX?

Or the Leica M9/M9P/M-E/M240?

[Hondaracer]

Hey Ronin might be a little late as i saw your in London by your instagram? anyways here's some of Russia and Finland pics first then ill try to type what i know

























So yea, we were in St. Petersburg for 3 days we stayed at the "Sokos" hotel which is a finnish chain i believe but it felt very much like any hotel you would stay at in a north american city, it was actually very nice

We were essentially 2 blocks off the water front, everything is seemingly based around the main canals and most places you can walk to. We didnt get out very far from the core of the city but most of the major attractions are all there, Peter/Paul Catherdral, summer and winter palace, etc.

I'd say a canal cruise is a must, you see a tonne iin a short amount of time, the guides we had were very good and it was quite cheap

The metro is great for getting around and easy enough to use, although in Russia NOTHING is in english outside of menu's at restuarants so sometimes its challenging if you dont know what your looking for. The metro is also completely fucked how deep it is lol, picture the granville street escalator and quadruple the length and double the steepness lol

The war museum pictured above [i forget the name, i beleive it's suppose to be an "artillery museum" but it has litterally any war machine ever created is in a hugeeeeee palace type building, we were in there for like 3-4 hours and that was walking fast

to understand the scope of this place they had a Kilishnekov [sp] exhibit that probably displayed 250-300 AK47's in various configurations over like 6000 sq feet? lol id say if you have any interested in weaponry, Russian war history this is a must see, it's a very cool place

Peter and paul catherdral is essentially a full park where you buy seperate ticket punches depending on what you want to see in the park, whether its the cathedral, the jail cells, etc. i think there are 5 different attractions there

on the east side of the main canal where the city hall type building is is where most of the resturants/shopping etc are all, great for people watching

there are also many parks strewn throughout the city where they serve beer and food outside, we took a cruise from finland that goes through 8 locks into vyborg, which is a coastal town 2 hours outside of St.petersburg so we bussed in from there which felt pretty much like all the crazy highway/dash cam videos you see around lol

ahh i cant really give much more for sights/directions, the water front has a bunch of boats/stalls for food and beers and i think there was even some sort of hooker party boat there as well lol, if you have any other questions i can try to answer them

[Hondaracer]

As for Finland, unless you really know your way around i'd say Helsinki is where you want to be, it's a very cool city very laid back feel i think people just want to embrace the summer weather while it lasts













there is alot to see around and in Helsinki and the airport is only like 20 minutes away from the core iconic waterfront. the city itself has plenty of cool buildings and the main big church, political buildings, presidents residence are all pretty much on the water front

water front market is pretty cool selling lots of quality stuff and food at reasonable prices

from the water front you can take a ferry over to Suomenlinna, which is a very cool island that still has all the battlements from long ago wars etc. people actually live there now and it's a sight to see if you have some time there

Also from the Helsinki waterfront you can take a fast ferry across the ocean to Thallin, Estonia, which i beleive is suppose to be one of, if not the oldest city in europe? the red brick roof tops are really iconic and the "old town" is really awesome, feels like some type of game of thrones type stuff with the shops and restaurants, the ferry is about 2 hours i think

oh and there is a theme park kind of on a hill in the heart of helsinki with a big ferris wheel where one of those shots is taken from, its kind of a cool old park with rides that feel like they are from old soviet russia lol

there are a few castles like the one i have pictured there, Savolinna, which is like 3 hours away from finland, it was very cool but unless you have business elsewhere its probably not worth it

The board pictured in the last picture is quite the monument in the town where my grandpa grew up and did his military stint, it's said that during a big russian invasion the only spot still held by the fins was the baracks at the top this hill which overlooked the town, Russians attemped to storm the gates and eventually failed and retreated, but the board was said to have sailed down the road that led up to the baracks because the river of Russian blood was so thick :S