Saint Petersburg : summer from roofs
russian version
I haven't had such a summer before. The uniqueness is in the fact that I spent most of it above the ground - on the roofs. No, don't think that I spent there whole days and nights (although it was few times), but almost every time I went to do photography - I walked to the roof. As it turns out you can't sense Saint Petersburg in expanse, in perspective, in scale otherwise. Of course you can walk along the Nevsky Prospekt, take an excursion by the rivers and canals, but your eye is almost always short-sighted because of limited review, you can't survey The City. Not only to sight some of its fragments, but to feel the hugeness and completeness exactly.
Truth to be told it was difficult for me to get used to its narrowness when I just came here. Before I came to Saint Petersburg I had been living in Vladivostok where I was overwatching another landscape: the city is situated on the hills and you have an overview to the surroundings every time. So at the beginning I felt somehow uncomfortable in St. Petersburg: eye is restricted into the walls of houses all the time, it does not see the city in a confined space as much as I used to, it's not imaginable where I live.
1.
Besides, there are almost no public panoramic-view points in St. Petersburg, so here is extending "roofing" (from eng. «roof»). There are many Roofers in the city and often they are doing illegal things and wonders virtuosity. But in their case it is an interest to the roofs with extreme overtones, such as "look how I can," or "aw, I have been there," etc. But my interest was exactly to photography: unusual (again - not for Roofers) views to the beautiful city.
2.
Actually to do justice to my friend serg_degtyarev, we both had the common interest - we studied how to photograph cityscape. It was a united ritual - almost every evening (at least - morning) climb up and make pictures. From time to time our friends-photographers joined to us and we looked amusing together of four or five on one corner of the roof. By the way, that summer I got a lot of new interesting and pleasant acquaintanceship thanks to photos.
3.
Over the summer there was a whole mental evolution. If at the beginning of the "path" I knew only that walking on the roof is bad, by the end of the season my personal experience added with many details and nuances. Like unwritten gradually turns into a story. There are just some of them. Roofers divided into real Roofers and others. It's simple: like real guys and others. Generally roofers are a separate caste. Typically they are young active cheerful guys. Many of them earn money on it - give tours to the roofs or arrange rendezvous on it with table, champagne, saxophonist, etc. And some are just dashing devils - they are famous because conquered completely inaccessible (for others) point, climbed to the "specific" objects.
4.
The concept of "bayan" is very common in this community - perhaps it is the most frequently used word in general, it is found in the Roofers' lexicon immediately and sticks to the tongue forever and then used permanently to the place or not - does not matter. Bayan means easily accessible (by Roofers' standards) and footworn roof.
5.
By the way bragging to each other they hurry to call 'bayan' almost any roof which someone once ascended. In turn we climbed just 'bayan'-roofs in most cases. At least such is the standpoint of Roofers. Although for those who have never been at the roof this seems "yaaaauh". Telling about how are you getting "there", ie "uncover the climb" - disgrace. Therefore a huge part of the roofs we discovered by ourselves: just come to the required house and looking for the climb, sometimes very long, sometimes with no result. By the way, afterwards you understand these simple emotions when somebody inquiring "how did you get there?"
6.
The hunt for the beautiful photos sometimes reached absurd. We've climbed 5-6 times to the same roof to catch the right light. It was amusing to climb to some palace for five evenings, awaiting for an interesting sunset. Sometimes, calling up and making plans for the evening, our discussions even reached phrases like "no, Alex, let's come anywhere today, but not on Kokushkin."
7.
Overall we walked a lot this summer. I do not remember that I have ever walked so much in the city. And then also creeping. What passageways only exists! I would never have believed it if I did not see with my own eyes.
8.
Still matters that the main reference and purpose was and remains - photography. And climb to the roof - yet half the battle. The main thing - to find the point of shooting. And it's desirable to find ideal point, which consider different nuances: perspective, composition, the proper angle of the sunset, the location in the frame the roads and so on and so forth. At the roof is hard to choose - space is limited. By the way sometimes it's not very limited, ie without barriers at the edge of the roof. Oh yeah, roofs are ramped in 99% of cases in the city center. So, when there were no barriers, (and the best shoot of course is from the edge) all that possible inside and outside is shaking with fear. You should not forget we are not real Roofers, as well just crawled to take pictures. Overall it was uncomfortable sometimes.
9.
But one thing was and remains unchanged - the city from roofs looks quite interesting: you can observe what is happening, as if you were an angel came down to look at the fuss. You see how bright sun is setting, varying all around by its soft light. You see the skyline! Watching the moment as sun rapidly disappears behind him, but its light still caressing clouds, turning them into incredible colors. Wow! From the ground in St. Petersburg suchlike is only seen probably from Palace Embankment - there is more or less spacious near Neva river, but the skyline is still hidden by the Peter and Paul Fortress. Or if go to the Gulf of Finland, but there does not exist such St. Petersburg that was built by Rossi, Trezzini, Montferrand and Rastrelli.
10.
Finally when reached the purpose, sitting at already verified point - there almost no time to think: looking after the histogram, shutter speed, aperture, iso, twist it for your tasks, change values, following the changes in a street lighting. Rarely could turn aside from all these importances, but from time to time I've been able to dream. Especially when it's warm weather at last, the sit comfortably and safely, and all the nuances of the shooting were taken into account - there was time to enjoy my special situation.
11.
There atop - awesome. So many people are seeking here not in vain. You seem to be in the city, but exactly over it, watching the scene: how day goes off, twilight gradually advancing, people hurry about their business, autos scurrying, and no one notice you... Unless you are sitting above the Nevsky in plain sight, at the corner of Griboyedov Canal for example (then all is quite the opposite). By the way I was the same until became walking at the roof - did not pay attention from the ground to them there. Each photo has its memories. There were many moments. More than once to shoot the dawn somewhere we spent all night on the roof, stocking up with food reserves. Respect that in St. Petersburg "white" nights in summer.
12.
Summer in St. Petersburg is strange, unpredictable. Lots of jokes exists already thanks this fact. One of the most famous: "Yes, we had a summer but I was sick at that day". According to statistics in St. Petersburg there is an average of 72 sunny days in a year. But the most offensive that summer is short and often cold. During the year cloudy days with overcast weather dominates. Although in the context of photography this is what it needs - it is better than an empty sky because surface texture above the architecture is a necessary component for me. Since then I had the idea to write in description to snapshots the temperature, which was at the shooting time: sometimes +12 ° C, sometimes +35 ° C.
13.
Certainly much better and more enjoyable to spend summer on the beach, surrounded by nature, swimming, sunbathing or think about nothing. But I'm not complaining because in the daytime I earn my living, and almost every evening again and again I returned to my little vacation. The intensity of walking was not in vain - I swam in the ocean of new experiences, having fun. And at the same time I made a lot of unusual images, kept this glorious period in the memory. Lucky I'm that living in St. Petersburg, lucky I'm that saw it that way. It was an unforgettable summer.
14.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Read also:
"Saint Petersburg : spring from roofs"
I haven't had such a summer before. The uniqueness is in the fact that I spent most of it above the ground - on the roofs. No, don't think that I spent there whole days and nights (although it was few times), but almost every time I went to do photography - I walked to the roof. As it turns out you can't sense Saint Petersburg in expanse, in perspective, in scale otherwise. Of course you can walk along the Nevsky Prospekt, take an excursion by the rivers and canals, but your eye is almost always short-sighted because of limited review, you can't survey The City. Not only to sight some of its fragments, but to feel the hugeness and completeness exactly.
Truth to be told it was difficult for me to get used to its narrowness when I just came here. Before I came to Saint Petersburg I had been living in Vladivostok where I was overwatching another landscape: the city is situated on the hills and you have an overview to the surroundings every time. So at the beginning I felt somehow uncomfortable in St. Petersburg: eye is restricted into the walls of houses all the time, it does not see the city in a confined space as much as I used to, it's not imaginable where I live.
1.
Besides, there are almost no public panoramic-view points in St. Petersburg, so here is extending "roofing" (from eng. «roof»). There are many Roofers in the city and often they are doing illegal things and wonders virtuosity. But in their case it is an interest to the roofs with extreme overtones, such as "look how I can," or "aw, I have been there," etc. But my interest was exactly to photography: unusual (again - not for Roofers) views to the beautiful city.
2.
Actually to do justice to my friend serg_degtyarev, we both had the common interest - we studied how to photograph cityscape. It was a united ritual - almost every evening (at least - morning) climb up and make pictures. From time to time our friends-photographers joined to us and we looked amusing together of four or five on one corner of the roof. By the way, that summer I got a lot of new interesting and pleasant acquaintanceship thanks to photos.
3.
Over the summer there was a whole mental evolution. If at the beginning of the "path" I knew only that walking on the roof is bad, by the end of the season my personal experience added with many details and nuances. Like unwritten gradually turns into a story. There are just some of them. Roofers divided into real Roofers and others. It's simple: like real guys and others. Generally roofers are a separate caste. Typically they are young active cheerful guys. Many of them earn money on it - give tours to the roofs or arrange rendezvous on it with table, champagne, saxophonist, etc. And some are just dashing devils - they are famous because conquered completely inaccessible (for others) point, climbed to the "specific" objects.
4.
The concept of "bayan" is very common in this community - perhaps it is the most frequently used word in general, it is found in the Roofers' lexicon immediately and sticks to the tongue forever and then used permanently to the place or not - does not matter. Bayan means easily accessible (by Roofers' standards) and footworn roof.
5.
By the way bragging to each other they hurry to call 'bayan' almost any roof which someone once ascended. In turn we climbed just 'bayan'-roofs in most cases. At least such is the standpoint of Roofers. Although for those who have never been at the roof this seems "yaaaauh". Telling about how are you getting "there", ie "uncover the climb" - disgrace. Therefore a huge part of the roofs we discovered by ourselves: just come to the required house and looking for the climb, sometimes very long, sometimes with no result. By the way, afterwards you understand these simple emotions when somebody inquiring "how did you get there?"
6.
The hunt for the beautiful photos sometimes reached absurd. We've climbed 5-6 times to the same roof to catch the right light. It was amusing to climb to some palace for five evenings, awaiting for an interesting sunset. Sometimes, calling up and making plans for the evening, our discussions even reached phrases like "no, Alex, let's come anywhere today, but not on Kokushkin."
7.
Overall we walked a lot this summer. I do not remember that I have ever walked so much in the city. And then also creeping. What passageways only exists! I would never have believed it if I did not see with my own eyes.
8.
Still matters that the main reference and purpose was and remains - photography. And climb to the roof - yet half the battle. The main thing - to find the point of shooting. And it's desirable to find ideal point, which consider different nuances: perspective, composition, the proper angle of the sunset, the location in the frame the roads and so on and so forth. At the roof is hard to choose - space is limited. By the way sometimes it's not very limited, ie without barriers at the edge of the roof. Oh yeah, roofs are ramped in 99% of cases in the city center. So, when there were no barriers, (and the best shoot of course is from the edge) all that possible inside and outside is shaking with fear. You should not forget we are not real Roofers, as well just crawled to take pictures. Overall it was uncomfortable sometimes.
9.
But one thing was and remains unchanged - the city from roofs looks quite interesting: you can observe what is happening, as if you were an angel came down to look at the fuss. You see how bright sun is setting, varying all around by its soft light. You see the skyline! Watching the moment as sun rapidly disappears behind him, but its light still caressing clouds, turning them into incredible colors. Wow! From the ground in St. Petersburg suchlike is only seen probably from Palace Embankment - there is more or less spacious near Neva river, but the skyline is still hidden by the Peter and Paul Fortress. Or if go to the Gulf of Finland, but there does not exist such St. Petersburg that was built by Rossi, Trezzini, Montferrand and Rastrelli.
10.
Finally when reached the purpose, sitting at already verified point - there almost no time to think: looking after the histogram, shutter speed, aperture, iso, twist it for your tasks, change values, following the changes in a street lighting. Rarely could turn aside from all these importances, but from time to time I've been able to dream. Especially when it's warm weather at last, the sit comfortably and safely, and all the nuances of the shooting were taken into account - there was time to enjoy my special situation.
11.
There atop - awesome. So many people are seeking here not in vain. You seem to be in the city, but exactly over it, watching the scene: how day goes off, twilight gradually advancing, people hurry about their business, autos scurrying, and no one notice you... Unless you are sitting above the Nevsky in plain sight, at the corner of Griboyedov Canal for example (then all is quite the opposite). By the way I was the same until became walking at the roof - did not pay attention from the ground to them there. Each photo has its memories. There were many moments. More than once to shoot the dawn somewhere we spent all night on the roof, stocking up with food reserves. Respect that in St. Petersburg "white" nights in summer.
12.
Summer in St. Petersburg is strange, unpredictable. Lots of jokes exists already thanks this fact. One of the most famous: "Yes, we had a summer but I was sick at that day". According to statistics in St. Petersburg there is an average of 72 sunny days in a year. But the most offensive that summer is short and often cold. During the year cloudy days with overcast weather dominates. Although in the context of photography this is what it needs - it is better than an empty sky because surface texture above the architecture is a necessary component for me. Since then I had the idea to write in description to snapshots the temperature, which was at the shooting time: sometimes +12 ° C, sometimes +35 ° C.
13.
Certainly much better and more enjoyable to spend summer on the beach, surrounded by nature, swimming, sunbathing or think about nothing. But I'm not complaining because in the daytime I earn my living, and almost every evening again and again I returned to my little vacation. The intensity of walking was not in vain - I swam in the ocean of new experiences, having fun. And at the same time I made a lot of unusual images, kept this glorious period in the memory. Lucky I'm that living in St. Petersburg, lucky I'm that saw it that way. It was an unforgettable summer.
14.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Read also:
"Saint Petersburg : spring from roofs"