I love time travelling, and what about you?
A little journey in time today back in May 18, 2024.
There happened an Annual Book festival which I wanted not to miss - especially since it took place at the Palace Square, one of the most tourist-attractive and energy-fuelled places of the city. If you visit Saint-Petersburg one day you surely will not miss it: Hermitage state museum (former Russian emperor residence) is one one side, Peter the Great horse monument on another side... oh no, sorry bad start, one may talk half an hour whats out there, let me skip it. :P
So, when the weather is not b...ching, a lot of folks come to the Palace Square to spend their leizure hours. (I am not speaking of the tourists here!) They eat, take pics, lay on the ground and give rest to the feet, listen to the busking musicians, or some special gigs / light shows arranged, play games etc etc etc. Everything can happen here.
The statues of Atlants at one of the Hermitage multiple entrances. Considered as one of iconic sights of the city.
...and the Alexander Column as well. It adorns the Palace Square since 1834 (its construction honored the emperor Alexander I's victory over Napoleon).
But this post aint gonna be architectural - its mostly about the folks and #streetphoto.
Today (or, to be precise, on the May, 18) it happened an annual Book Festival here, a lot of folks came especially to visit this event (like me), but I stayed after to have a massive stroll and to watch the people and their everyday life.
These 'animator' folks dressed in vintage dress one cannot miss. They always here and there buzzing into your ears, suggesting to take a pic. (Their service is quite costy, I should note. Beware!) But if you have telephoto lens, you can take pics for free, haha.
This is typical urban scene: Graffiti master selling his art that he creates right at your eyes. Such a sight always attracts a lot of passers-by watchers (as for the art conoissers and buyers / collectioners... I am not so sure about it).
One of the festival spots (the outdoors one).
Post box and free postcards postage service - municipal newspapers self-advertisement.
International book festival had a lot of awesome corners for kids and their parents - including the swing, gigantic leizure spot with a lot of pillows, and two rooms for various master-classes.
Mom, I have got a different socks! -- No problem, kid! nobody will pay attention. We go out as you are.
The Book festival included three separate book pavilions; I had time to enter only one - dedicated to kidz literature. After spending few hours there I had no energy to check the other two, as simple as that! I captured a lot of cool visuals there, but thats a subject for a separate post for sure. Kids reading books is a solid pleasure for me.
And watching scenes like this through my camera's view finder... double pleasure! lol. Profit.
Of course, there are a lot of street sellers here... loads of tourists mean sales possibilities, thus the sellers with all sorts of memorabilia shit are imminent... evil.
Tho today I stumbled upon a funny one. He was selling a ladybug-shaped baloons! and it was fun to watch, indeed.
Happily I was alone, with no kid around begging me to buy one or two, hehe. (Not my problem! This time it was someone else's problem, haha).
Brought me some funny shots, including ladybug's shadows. Have you got a capture of labybug's shadow at all? I've got one, pretty big and convincing, hehe.
Ok, let me round up my post here. Hope you enjoyed the visuals and walking with me across the beautiful city of St.Petersburg. See you next time!
| location: | St.Petersburg, Russia | May 2024 | natural light |
| camera/lens: | Canon 5dm3 | Canon 70-200mm | raw-conv |
