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Flying over Nevsky Prospect
Tower of City Duma, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
October 26, 2023 - 12:30 GMT+0
© 2023 Andrew Varlamov, All Rights Reserved.
Nevsky Prospect is the main street of Saint Petersburg. The avenue runs from the Admiralty in the west to the Moscow Railway Station and, after veering slightly southwards at Vosstaniya Square, to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
The famous red five-story pentagonal tower was built in 1799–1804 to a design by Giacomo Ferrari. To reach its observation deck at a height of 47,5 meters, visitors have to climb 233 steps.
Visible in the north are: dark-green dome of Catholic Church of St Catherine, gold-painted spire of Peter and Paul Cathedral, onion domes of Church of the Resurrection of Christ.
Visible on the west are: Kazan Cathedral and Saint Isaac's Cathedral.
Irregular quadrangle to the south of the tower is Great Gostiny Dvor - a vast department store.
Lat: 59° 56' 4.945" N
Long: 30° 19' 46.575" E
Precision is: Medium. Nearby, but not to the last decimal.
Camera: Pentax K-5 II; Lenses: 4.5mm F2.8 EX DC CIRCULAR FISHEYE HSM + HD PENTAX-DA AF REAR CONVERTER 1.4X AW; Hot shoe two axis double bubble spirit level: ROWI 197;Cable switch: CS-205; No tripod: due to technology "Flying Willy" by Willy Kaemena; PC Software: PTGui Pro 12.11 by New House Internet Services B.V. (dated by April 18, 2022), Pano2VR 6.1.8 pro 64bit by Garden Gnome Software (dated by May 25, 2020), Adobe Photoshop
Despite of late autumn and yellow foliage You can mark snow on roofs.
Air temperature was -3 °C, light east wind and almost clear sky.
Pentagonal form of the observation deck impacted on choice of points for shots - corners and centers of sides (5+5=10). Of course, handrails surround the observation deck, and in addition handrails are extended
by yellow thick metallic rods (1/2 meters long) pointing outside the tower (looking like protection against flying objects or birds). So shooting process was doubled - except strongly horizontal shots from the handrails, it was necessary to lift camera up over head to decrease presence of yellow rods on the shots. 10 shots for nadir were the last (but not the least) act of shooting process.
Stitching was common and humble - I can't to report anything new. Roof of the tower was joined from fragments of nadir shots.
Some place of the result panorama obtained blurred and darkened - first of all it was caused by camera. That is why I was forced to use photos shooted in the same time by smartphone, to enhance result panorama and make it more bright and sharp.