One of the many shots I’ve taken of the Vitus Cathedral, Prague Castle, and Charles Bridge. It’s pretty difficult to pull yourself away from shooting these three structures the whole time you’re in Prague. I was just constantly finding new angles on them.
While wandering around Prague I was trying to take photos that didn’t conform with every postcard hanging in the shops. It’s pretty difficult not focusing on exclusively photographing the landmarks here. There’s lots of them and they’re everywhere. So, I was pretty pleased when I looked over the edge of the Charles Bridge and spotted this scene. The bridge was crowded with street vendors and tourists bustling by. Then, over the edge it was just peaceful. As I set up I noticed that every now and again someone would stroll through. So, I waited until someone got right into the spot I was looking for. It was a surprisingly short wait.
This is a combination of seven exposures from -3 to +3. It was important to use this wide range of exposures because, as you can see, I was shooting directly into the sun. This photo is a good illustration of the capabilities of HDR photography. Typically, shooting into the sun is considered a no-no and with the limited light range of my camera’s sensor I’d really only be able to capture a silhouette of everything lined up in front of the sun. By combining multiple exposures the details in the trees’ bark have been captured along with the camouflage jacket the man is wearing. These are all details I was able to see while I was there.
The East end of Charles Bridge, taken at night. I used a long exposure, by attaching my ND-4 filter, in order to erase the people walking to and fro. The last time I was there a friend of mine took a photo on the bank just to the left of this tower, looking across towards the castle with the bridge and it’s statues in the left of the frame. I really wanted to get down there to do the same. Unfortunately, that area was closed for construction.
…at least that’s what I’m calling it. This is a detail shot of the door, and mosaic, beneath the astronomical clock on the Old Town Hall of Prague. This was taken at the same time as the picture in the above link, shortly after I’d discovered that the clock did not spring to life at this time of day. That is probably what the old street sweeper was trying to tell me as he watched me move my camera about in the middle of the road. The twelve apostles, which parade hourly when it’s running, did not appear. However, being there early did mean that, prior to the sound of Death noting the hour by chiming a single bell, I could hear the mechanisms through the stone wall working away. The clicking and whirring of gears spinning bred anticipation. I thought wow, this is going to be a much better show than the last time I saw it. That time I was surrounded by tourists and paying for overpriced water in a cafe to secure a view. I wasn’t too disappointed at the lack of action though. At least I got to hear something I hadn’t noticed the first time there.
This photo actually took a surprising amount of work. I even converted it to black and white to try to make it look a bit more interesting. In the end I realized that the bricks were an over-saturated orange color, which distracted from the door and cobblestones. Once that was toned back to a more natural level, I was happy with the result.
Oh, and England managed to beat Scotland in the 6 Nations today, despite a pretty poor performance. I’m happy with that result too.
On my last night in Prague, nearing the end of my five-hour stroll, I decided to make my way to Charles Bridge from the Old Town Square. I didn’t want to take the same route I had in the past and took off in what I was sure was the general direction of the river. Luckily, I was right. On the way there, I stumbled across this building and a very busy intersection in front of it. At the time I had no idea what the building was, but decided I definitely had to stop and take a photo. As I stood there shielding my camera from all the foot traffic, it was situated about a foot off the ground, the van driving politician cruised through with his music still blaring.
Since getting back home, Google Maps has informed me that this is the Czech Philharmonic at Rudolfinum, which I think is a great name for a building.
I set out early in the morning to get some photos of Prague’s main tourist sites, the Old Town Square and the Charles Bridge, without hordes of tourists blocking my view. There’s a few ways to create images without people in them. Of course, the best is to take an image when there’s no-one there. Another method is to set a long shutter speed so that any people moving through the scene will not register in the final image. This requires two things. Firstly, the people crossing through the frame need to keep moving enough that you won’t end up with a ghosted image of them. Secondly, you either need low enough light levels or a dark enough filter to use a long enough exposure.
Neither of the above methods worked for me in taking this picture. I was there early, but not early enough. On top of this people like to stop on Charles Bridge and I didn’t have a dark enough ND filter to really extend my shutter speeds to block them out. As a result I set about working on a post processing technique. I took a bunch of pictures so that I could blend them together and end up with a people-free Charles Bridge. Then, this little girl walking with her parents suddenly took off running and stopped at this little plaque. I decided this made for a nice image and decided to keep her in the photo. Once I got home I decided I’d actually have liked to show the various stages of her approach. Unfortunately, I hadn’t taken enough images to make this work. I’ve seen an intriguing e-book called “Photographing the Fourth Dimension – Time” . It’s available at Flatbooks which is run by Trey Ratcliffe of Stuck In Customs. The photographers he works with in producing these books are always interesting and informative. I’m planning on buying this book and giving it a read as the concept sounds intriguing to me. Also, the next time someone starts moving through a scene in an interesting way I’ll make sure I keep the shutter firing.
This is probably not what you’d expect my first picture from Prague to look like. However, I slept through two key points of the day – sunrise and sunset. I’m not sure what happened this morning, either my alarm didn’t go off or I just didn’t wake up for it. I went out midday and took a bunch of pictures of the Charles Bridge and the castle up on the hill. I got back to the hotel room and didn’t feel particularly inspired to work on any of them. They’re all a bit too much like the standard postcards I’m seeing everywhere here. So, I resolved to go out again later, at sunset. Then I woke up and it was dark outside. I don’t remember going to sleep.
I still went out. I’d spotted this building in the taxi on the way to my hotel, it’s just around the corner. I knew exactly what I wanted this photo to look like and needed long exposures to get it. This is composition of 5 shots at the following shutter speeds: 1 min, 2 min, 4 min, 8 min, 16 min.
Also, it’s bloody cold in Prague! Fingers crossed for sunrise tomorrow. It’s also supposed to snow on Tuesday, which I think would be great.
If this goes right, this should be posting itself while I’m on a flight to London on my way to Prague. So, I think it makes sense that I post the one photo of London I have. I took this on my way to Africa. To maximize our time in Africa we decided to do two overnight flights back to back. But, this meant we had a lot of time to kill in London. We stuck our bags in storage at Piccadilly station and spent the morning taking a walking tour starting at the Tower of London before crossing Tower Bridge and walking down the south side of the Thames. Cameron and I had spent a week in London a few years ago and stayed in a hostel near this café. It’s a cool little place. For lunch they serve paella cooked on huge frying pans on the street. For breakfast they had giant Cumberland sausages cooking on the grill served on a fresh bun.
The setting is also great. It’s actually close to London Bridge train station. It’s hectic up there, crossing the street to get to the stairs is pretty stressful on 4 hours of sleep. But, it’s worth it when you drop down in to this little oasis of calm. As a bonus we were there on a Saturday. That meant that the Borough Market was happening just around the corner. They’ve got tons of good stuff there ranging from meat and fish, to cheese, to giant piles of brownies. I’m partial to the giant piles of brownies.
I’ve added a London category for this entry so I really hope I get some time to get my camera out while I’m there.
Oh, and if you’re wondering, the four people sat at the table were my travel buddies. Three weeks in Africa and we’re still speaking to each other… just about.
