This photo is taken at around noon in downtown Toronto in the Financial District.Due to the time of day, the light at the ground level was not that special, so I started searching something interesting perspective-wise. After some walking around, I found a place from where the tall buildings looked nice when looking directly up to the sky. I waited a while in the same spot, letting the clouds pass and experimented with different-looking skies. I ended up liking a variant where there was a break in the clouds in between the buildings.The final image you see here is a three-exposure HDR post-processed using Lightroom and Photoshop.

Being the most populous city in the USA, the main streets in New York are crowded pretty much 24/7. This time there was a parade of some kind going to take place on the 57th street, resulting in it being closed for motor vehicles.I rushed to take advantage of this chance to get a shot of the scene without cars. With the street empty, the road markings formed a clear leading line to the distance, where a couple of skyscrapers stood tall featuring also low-level clouds that highlighted their height further.Regarding technical aspects, the final image is a blended from three exposures. Post-processing, in turn, is done in Lightroom, Silver Efex Pro 2 and Photoshop.

For me as a photographer, the best place in Paris to see the sights isn’t the Eiffel Tower because, as is obvious, you can’t capture the number one cultural icon of the city when being on top of it. Instead, a better viewpoint can be found at the observation deck of the Montparnasse Tower, which is usually also significantly less crowded.The Eiffel Tower is directly to the northeast from Montparnasse Tower, and behind it stands the city’s financial district La Défense, providing a contrasting backdrop to the traditional scene.The final image is merged from three exposures and the post-processing is done in Lightroom, Color Efex Pro 4 and Photoshop.

In Northern Lapland, during the polar night, the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon at all. In Saariselkä, Finland, this period of darkness lasts about a month from December 4 to January 8. But even in the winter months after this, you can only see daylight for a couple of hours. This picture is from mid-January, taken at about one o’clock in the afternoon, and the sun was already setting.Unlike normally in my travels, I hadn’t done much location scouting this time for the simple reason that Google Street View doesn’t cover the wilderness very well. So, being forced to go looking for interesting places while there heading to the cross-country skiing tracks sounded like a good plan. Along the tracks, I spotted this tiny stream that wasn’t frozen forming a nice zig zag line to the sunset and immediately thought that this could make a nice composition.Regarding technical aspects, the image is merged from three exposures for optimal highlight and shadow quality. The post-processing is done in Lightroom as well as Color Efex Pro 4 and output sharpening in Photoshop.

Needless to say, this is a picture of the New York City skyline. I had scouted the Brooklyn Bridge Park as a good location to shoot the cityscape at sunset already before the trip, and while not the most original setup, in my opinion, the scene is affected by the sky so much that fresh images can still be captured from this viewpoint.One of the key reasons I chose this particular location is the fact that the wooden poles in the water create an obvious leading line to Manhattan, and I think this interaction works especially well in the dark when the city lights are on. Yet, although I stayed there to shoot until it was completely dark and came home with different variants of the scene, I ended up liking this one with light still in the sky the best.On the technical side, the final image is a panorama stitched from nine vertical three-exposure HDR shots. I edited it in Lightroom, Color Efex Pro 4 and Photoshop.

This shot is taken at a small intersection in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. In addition to the more traditional tourist shots of the landmarks in the French capital, just walking around the streets of Paris appears to offer some great photo opportunities, too.What I really liked in the scene was the way the graffiti on the right-hand side of the frame played together with the blossoming cherry tree, forming a pink curve. The color also seemed to work well with the beige wall as a background.On the technical side, there’s nothing special about this image, as it’s a single-exposure shot, post-processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

There is an interactive work of public art called Crown Fountain at the Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois. In the fountain, a granite reflecting pool is placed between two glass brick towers, making the artwork look especially impressive in the dark.Besides being a piece of art, the fountain appeared to be popular among children as a playground. I waited a while just looking at their play and then, a little girl stayed behind the rest of the group of children in the pool, forming a single silhouette figure in front of the illuminated glass bricks. For me, this was the picture I was looking for here.On the technical side, there is nothing special in the image; this is a single exposure, post-processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.