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alexiuss β€” Center of USSR

Published: 2008-04-06 06:43:19 +0000 UTC; Views: 179246; 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.
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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

irikaru [2008-04-07 07:29:27 +0000 UTC]

woow this looks AMAZING the way everything is set with each other the composition of all the objects and the lighting in this image is excellent i love how its raining and the reflection is on the ground excellent work with the sky it looks wonderful nice work

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deansboy In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 07:14:54 +0000 UTC]

Gorgeous color. Better in a slightly dim room so the screen isn't overwhelmed.

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hdnlv In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 06:39:49 +0000 UTC]

thats AWESOME :]
nice colours

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Taanilinna In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 06:31:22 +0000 UTC]

Π ΠžΠ‘Π“ΠžΠ‘Π‘Π’Π ΠΠ₯ выглядит особСнно ΡΡ‚Ρ€Π°ΡˆΠ½ΠΎ

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Curtis13666 In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 06:19:47 +0000 UTC]

excellent photo, I like your recent photo spree

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Urajji In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 05:58:11 +0000 UTC]

beautiful

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Aveoxus [2008-04-07 05:57:30 +0000 UTC]

Nice job on those clouds vitaly! And the truth is, is it looks pretty darn believable despite being altered.. even though I could tell without reading the description

HA omg. Go ahead art stealers.. he doesn't have his signature in the bottom right as usual... or does he? X3
I didn't notice what was on the licence plates until I saw one said VITALY : S.. then I noticed the second one ^^

BACK in the USS..BACK in the USS-R!! lol

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Frosty1303 In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 05:48:43 +0000 UTC]

Π₯ΠΎΡ€ΠΎΡˆΠΎ Ρ‚Π°ΠΊ россгосстрах ΠΏΠ΅Ρ€Π΅Π²Π΅Π» Π½Π° английский))
ΠΎΡ‡Π΅Π½ΡŒ красивый снимок

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aWitR In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 05:25:52 +0000 UTC]

wonderful.

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PlayOn22 [2008-04-07 05:16:50 +0000 UTC]

the exposure of the sky turned out so amazing! it almost has an underwater look

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aprilsjester [2008-04-07 05:09:35 +0000 UTC]

klasna!

makes me want to visit moscow after being gone for so long. very inspiring, beautiful.

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BlackScarletLove [2008-04-07 05:09:00 +0000 UTC]

lol nicely done with the license plates. hehe.

Howd you manage to tripod in the middle of the intersection?

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

that sky is beautiful

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ENDth [2008-04-07 04:32:24 +0000 UTC]

isnt it amazing that 2 places completely on other sides of the world can look so similar

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TheKekistani [2008-04-07 04:05:00 +0000 UTC]

its really great !! prekrasno

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bedheadben [2008-04-07 04:04:33 +0000 UTC]

Beautiful.

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Julian-AFF [2008-04-07 04:04:12 +0000 UTC]

I so wanna go to Russia

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sparchert [2008-04-07 03:55:56 +0000 UTC]

very nice

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Z1aR0 In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 03:52:00 +0000 UTC]

Oh wow! Beautiful picture. And seeing Tikkurila-add makes is just a hell lot better

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PD-Ninja [2008-04-07 03:26:58 +0000 UTC]

just wondering did u add in the license plate name directly below the chapel?? its always nice to see into someone elses world

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lessthan3cheeks In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 03:26:03 +0000 UTC]

wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

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Maz6277 In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 03:10:28 +0000 UTC]

Love it

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LostLove223 [2008-04-07 03:05:17 +0000 UTC]

This is such an amazing shot

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superphilman [2008-04-07 03:02:50 +0000 UTC]

Photoshopped sky, bad composition

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alexiuss In reply to superphilman [2008-04-07 06:52:26 +0000 UTC]

your critique has been rated at 17 thumbs down.

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superphilman In reply to alexiuss [2008-04-07 20:52:40 +0000 UTC]

I don't care what other people think. Take the comment with a pinch of salt and get over it!

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Chavez-Chavez In reply to superphilman [2008-04-08 12:12:58 +0000 UTC]

or you could just not comment.

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superphilman In reply to Chavez-Chavez [2008-04-08 12:32:29 +0000 UTC]

I'm free to speak my mind anywhere. I am free, and I am not losingmy write of free speach because some people don't like it. fashist.

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Tsylord [2008-04-07 02:54:47 +0000 UTC]

That looks amazing.

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JonFreeman In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 02:27:18 +0000 UTC]

awesome work. very inspiring pic. ^^

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DasBlitzgott In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 02:25:52 +0000 UTC]

Wow, amazing.

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deaddonkeysrule In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 02:03:03 +0000 UTC]

beautiful photograph!

woww

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peeps4tea [2008-04-07 01:50:02 +0000 UTC]

The colors are incredible.
And the large opening in the sky, allowing the sun to shine through, an excellent capture!

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NTrike In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 01:43:40 +0000 UTC]

HDR?
Olso this is center of russia)
I was in this place

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ErickZombie [2008-04-07 01:40:56 +0000 UTC]

I feel like i've been there before,de ja vu.

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thepowerofsoul [2008-04-07 01:39:48 +0000 UTC]

How did you get such a crips HDR with the moving cars?

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Kibi-s2 [2008-04-07 01:27:03 +0000 UTC]

That is one amazing sky!

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eclipsa In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 01:06:40 +0000 UTC]

Awesome shot! The sky looks amazing!

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wlkdesigns In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 01:05:40 +0000 UTC]

Seriously awesome HDR work. Great job!

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LivRavencroft In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 01:01:35 +0000 UTC]

amazing.

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TOMIarsfan [2008-04-07 01:01:27 +0000 UTC]

green light on the sky ;O Apocalypse is near

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lizskie [2008-04-07 00:31:53 +0000 UTC]

This is really cool. I love the colors and the general photograph. [:

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kremalicious [2008-04-07 00:30:27 +0000 UTC]

awesome sky! wonderful

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HazySky In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 00:30:10 +0000 UTC]

Haha, the license plates on the cars are very clever. XD

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Black-Allison In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 00:26:45 +0000 UTC]

Insurance companies, the most feared and respected entities on the planet(like the Godfather), mainly because it's probably the only thing that there isn't porn of on the internet.

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supashmo In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 00:16:25 +0000 UTC]

Aaaaand Fave.

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ViniciusDoideira In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 00:14:35 +0000 UTC]

Beautiful picture and history! The sky is beautiful! and the colors are great! I'd like to know Siberia!

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IchibanWolf In reply to ??? [2008-04-07 00:13:19 +0000 UTC]

sweet. i always wanted to visit russia.

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bender In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 23:46:31 +0000 UTC]

beautiful hdr!

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yodahome In reply to ??? [2008-04-06 23:45:34 +0000 UTC]

This is just marvelous!

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