I still remember the time I scolded a group of French high school students in London, or the time I picked up a chunk of rubbish a tourist tossed to the ground in Paris and stuffed it into their hand and said “you dropped this”.
I’m not good in Europe in general, the continent tends to get me down. It’s too busy in the summer and the days are too short in the winter, it’s fairly lose/lose. However, in Prague, for some reason, the crowds didn’t get to me at all.
In fact, I didn’t mind contributing to them.
I think the reason the crowds in Prague didn’t bother me much was because I it was really easy to escape them. Tourists in Prague seem to stick to a very tight route. From the old town square across Karlov Most Bridge and then up to the Castle. They don’t stray to far from that region.
Also, I really liked Prague, actually and I think that the crowds there are extremely justified, it’s just a beautiful city.
A day of photography in Prague almost always starts on Karlov Most bridge. It’s usually packed during the day, but in the morning all you get is a dozen or so photographers.
As beautiful as it is, I’m not sure I was inspired by it. As you may have noticed, I’ve been having an extremely hard time trying to find motivation to write. I’m having a hard time feeling that same awe and power I got in Africa. As lovely as Europe may be, and as photogenic, very few of the places I have been really made me feel anything aside from “I should take a picture”.
As such, this is going to be a bit of a photo essay from Prague. I hope you enjoy the images!
The light wasn’t great on Karlov Most Bridge, but the cobblestone still made the purple light worth waking up for.
Probably my favourite shot from the morning on the bridge, although not a powerful image, it has a bit of a “fairy tale” feel to it.
Love these flat Czech houses and narrow roadways.
Next order of the day is to hike up to wards the castle
Great views from the top, and many a couple can be found “romancing”.
I always try to add multiple dimensions to my images. It can never just be a skyline, it has to be framed as well.
The police at the top seemed to be pretty chilled out.
Ok, sometimes it is just a skyline.
I framed these tourists in my shot on purpose to add a sense of scale to the size of that enormous door.
Lots of police “figures” up by the castle.
I got this photo by panning. Basically, I move the camera at the speed they walk with a slow shutter an they stay in focus and the background moves. It adds a sense of motion to the image.
I took this image of Tiffany shooting my long lens. Despite all the beautiful buildings I think both of us had more fun people watching than we did looking at history.
Loved this little guy ripping down the street on his motorcycle.
Sweet old man playing the sax while his wife attempted to sell everyone his CDs.
One last morning in Prague. Got up to shoot the old town square but got distracted by this alley.
Get low or get high, is great photography advice. It provides a new angle and perspective to an image that may have been seen a thousand times before.
Ok, we’re outta Prague and off towards Vienna. Stay tuned.
