St. Petersburg, Russia Though a Cracked Perspective

When we finished the Trans Siberian Railway in Vladivostok, our longtime goal, we flew nine hours back to Moscow, boarded another plane to fly an hour and a half to St. Petersburg. We wanted to see the Hermitage, so we woke up early the next morning and took an Uber to the visitor’s entrance to pick up our tickets.

While waiting for the opening time, watching the tour buses pull in with loads of people, my son noticed this.

Yes, I had clearly damaged my favorite camera. But where?

Days before, in Ulan-Ude, before the last leg of our train journey, we took a cab to find some Buddhist temples.

I have a Black Rapids sling for my camera which crosses my chest diagonally with the camera hanging on my right hip. Climbing those stairs I tripped, banging my camera off the concrete. It still functioned and took many photos.

Anyway, we stormed through the Hermitage and then spilled out into the courtyard.

I loved the Ramones fan!

All of those photos were taken through my cracked filter protecting my beloved DLSR lens. The cracks are not detectable, yet they’re there. It’s a testament to a video I’ve seen on DigitalRev in which Kai uses a lens to hammer in some nails. He took great photos afterwards and, if I do say so myself, I took a few, too.

However, if the sun was in the proper angle, the cracks were evident.

Ah, well. There’s a bit of character to those shots.

We eventually headed back to the airport to fly to Moscow and I was excited to find this at a shop selling SKA St. Petersburg hockey gear.

Yes, that is none other than #13, the Magic Man, former Detroit Red Wing Pavel Datsyuk. I miss him and the sublime dangles with which he would mesmerize his opponents. The Wings never missed the playoffs with him elevating his team mates around him. Anyway, all good things come to an end. The Perfect Human has retired and been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Magic Man has returned to Russia. Great teams as well as great trips…

~ Freddy