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alexiuss β€” Center of USSR

Published: 2008-04-06 06:43:19 +0000 UTC; Views: 179340; Favourites: 5120; Downloads: 10947
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Description This is Novosibirsk, my hometown, capital of Siberia.

The Chapel of St. Nicholas, originally built in 1915 to commemorate 300 years of Romanov rule, destroyed in 1930 and rebuilt in 1993, gleams in the middle of the photograph.
The plaque on it said: "This is the exact geographical center of Soviet Union."
I always wondered how exactly they measured that.
To me, as a kid, this had seemed like the center of the known world, the axis of intersections of trans-Siberian railways extending across Ural mountains to Kamchatka.

I returned to Novosibirsk during my Siberian trip in summer of 2007, to shoot this image during a thunderstorm, from the inside of a car standing in traffic.
If you're wondering- the sign on the building literally translates to: "Russ-government-fear", it's basically a humongous insurance company. I find the name rather inspiring and amusing either way.

This place, where I had lived for 9 years, had inspired my dreams and many of my paintings, as cloudscapes tend to be quite beautiful in Siberia.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sky is dark thanks to HDR photography- 1 over-exposed shot for ground and 2 separate underexposed shots for sky combined into one image.
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Comments: 737

Equine-hi [2008-04-06 08:29:31 +0000 UTC]

I want to go to siberia sometime.

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Korrektor In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 08:23:03 +0000 UTC]

nice pic. The translation of the sign, however, is
[link] .
Russian State Insurance. Great thinking though.

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alexiuss In reply to Korrektor [2008-04-06 16:47:56 +0000 UTC]

I know. I'm translating it literally, because it's funnier that way.
Ros- russian
Gos-goverment
Strah- fear... they probably mean stahovoye agenstvo though.

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Korrektor In reply to alexiuss [2008-04-07 04:37:10 +0000 UTC]

yeah i got it man, Gos - gosudarstvennoye - state
just helping you not to forget the language

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Penguiun In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 08:20:31 +0000 UTC]

really cool picture!

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CindysArt In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 08:11:56 +0000 UTC]

Wow!! this is wonderful! What a lovely colour!

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BlackInk-- In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 08:04:02 +0000 UTC]

i honestly thought that you'd painted that sky in post. !
totally amazing! nice work with the number plates as well ^^

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Mendicant In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 08:03:08 +0000 UTC]

Good God! The sky looks INCREDIBLE!!

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TDBK In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 08:00:40 +0000 UTC]

Nice! I love HDR pictures. Great shot and very interesting description.

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hyenacub In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 08:00:30 +0000 UTC]

There is some *incredible* color in this picture, and the chapel is beautiful! The name of that insurance place is strangely appealing LOL

And you're right about the clouds. : )

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alexiuss In reply to hyenacub [2008-04-06 16:48:21 +0000 UTC]

isn't it?
I just love that name

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hyenacub In reply to alexiuss [2008-04-06 18:47:40 +0000 UTC]

:grin:

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Furrylittleproblem12 [2008-04-06 07:55:44 +0000 UTC]

great photograph, man

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Toralien [2008-04-06 07:51:29 +0000 UTC]

Nic e place!

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crump3t [2008-04-06 07:46:27 +0000 UTC]

looks depressing. but interesting

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McJohnalds [2008-04-06 07:45:15 +0000 UTC]

damn... that is intense!
(gets the feeling that he has said the exact same thing somewhere else but doesn't know how else to communicate his amazement)

i love your photograhpy...

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Areishia In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 07:45:03 +0000 UTC]

It looks really cool.I like the sky a lot!

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dangel-tasha [2008-04-06 07:43:54 +0000 UTC]

Ρ‚ΠΎΠ»ΡŒΠΊΠΎ Π‘Π‘Π‘Π  ΡƒΠΆΠ΅ Π½Π΅Ρ‚

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alexiuss In reply to dangel-tasha [2008-04-06 16:48:38 +0000 UTC]

tak tochno

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Blanzeflor In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 07:41:42 +0000 UTC]

This is a very stunning photo! Really beautiful but then I'm partial to clouds....

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rimete In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 07:40:54 +0000 UTC]

Great shot to tonemap and also - the traffic is in the one lane it's flowing and the other more traffic jam. Really adds to the composition. Last: Excellent Excellent use for copyright.....doesn't take away from the image and safe. That's what we more of - creative protection methods...and it worked very well.

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NiminiEXE In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 07:40:29 +0000 UTC]

Pretty well done

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reco-rem In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 07:38:30 +0000 UTC]

My native Russia Terrific work.

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Adalelle [2008-04-06 07:33:03 +0000 UTC]

I knew your last thunderstorm photo wasn't Toronto!

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alexiuss In reply to Adalelle [2008-04-06 16:49:17 +0000 UTC]

haha obviously not. It said so on it.

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Adalelle In reply to alexiuss [2008-04-06 17:56:01 +0000 UTC]

really? I spent a good 2-3 minutes on your first lightning photo, going where the f*** could that be?

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mandelak In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 07:32:29 +0000 UTC]

thats a bloody nice picture. bloody bloody nice

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etheraiel In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 07:30:00 +0000 UTC]

Powerful shot, the lighting and colors are magnifient! Brilliant work.

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Materia-Arts [2008-04-06 07:28:31 +0000 UTC]

Love that colour in the clouds right above the church, excellent.

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brandybuck In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 07:23:15 +0000 UTC]

wow, this is brilliant! city life at its best

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randomvacancy In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 07:19:59 +0000 UTC]

"Beautiful" is correct. This photograph makes me want to visit. Gorgeous.

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omtay In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 07:19:16 +0000 UTC]

I like the sky

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militarymarinebratt [2008-04-06 07:08:42 +0000 UTC]

wow...when first saw the sky in this shot i thought of your paintings...then i looked at ur artist comment and went AHA!!! lol...anywho...looks very good

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JinnBhai In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 07:05:26 +0000 UTC]

WWWOOAHHH awesome. The method freaked me out lol. Awesome stuff!

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selebriana [2008-04-06 07:01:05 +0000 UTC]

НС Π·Π½Π°Π»Π° Ρ‡Ρ‚ΠΎ Ρ‚Ρ‹ ΠΈΠ· России
ΠΎΡ‡Π΅Π½ΡŒ красивоС Π½Π΅Π±ΠΎ тамклассная Ρ„ΠΎΡ‚ΠΊΠ°!)

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alexiuss In reply to selebriana [2008-04-06 16:50:07 +0000 UTC]

teper znayesh.
spasiba!

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Ayuku In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 07:00:08 +0000 UTC]

Great shot! Very impressive.

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Gordjia In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 06:57:21 +0000 UTC]

ΠΎΠΉ, Новосиб! Π—Π΄ΠΎΡ€ΠΎΠ²ΠΎ

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alexiuss In reply to Gordjia [2008-04-06 06:58:33 +0000 UTC]

tak tochno.

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Gordjia In reply to alexiuss [2008-04-06 16:45:54 +0000 UTC]

i like this city because of friends and Pyshnoy))

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Obsidian492 [2008-04-06 06:56:33 +0000 UTC]

Amazing sky!

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XThisOneGuyX [2008-04-06 06:54:56 +0000 UTC]

My God!! (sorry to those who might be offended).... I love that sky, how it seems to ring around the chapel...

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CamSev [2008-04-06 06:49:26 +0000 UTC]

I can definitely see some similarities between the clouds in this photo and your digital art.

Absolutely gorgeous.

Reminds me of clouds in Alaska. Must be something about the far northern latitudes haha.

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alexiuss In reply to CamSev [2008-04-06 06:55:35 +0000 UTC]

probably
it is rather north... winters really suck.

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CamSev In reply to alexiuss [2008-04-06 07:03:11 +0000 UTC]

haha yes, winters are pretty nasty. Winter break after months of school in California was pretty killer....

It might be cold, but the sunsets are incredible.

...well at least when there is actual daylight around to create it...

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Konocha In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 06:48:00 +0000 UTC]

That sky just looks SO amazing o.o
.. I see a Tikkurila-shop!

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alexiuss In reply to Konocha [2008-04-06 06:56:29 +0000 UTC]

haha yep. corporate franchisees taking over

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Reiska In reply to alexiuss [2008-04-06 09:47:21 +0000 UTC]

Go Tikkurila, paint to the Ivan.

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nortonnn In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 06:47:37 +0000 UTC]

not just Vitaly,but some plate"svitart.com" in "somewherewlse"
anyways what language is that ?(on the outdoors)

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nortonnn In reply to nortonnn [2008-04-06 06:51:58 +0000 UTC]


I got that
is there any other hidden stuff?

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