Photographic Awakening

The trip to Moravia rekindled my photographic flame.

I recall a time when I shunned black and white photography simply because it seemed so wasteful to cast off the beautiful colors of the world. Lately I’ve discovered that it allows the photographer to draw attention to specific elements of the picture--a tradeoff particularly acceptable for pictures with little color to begin with.

I think part of my growth as a photographer was caused by the stream of practice I had during the Moravia trip—ride the bus, shoot photos, repeat. Another part was a result of the fog that invades Prague’s streets on the occasional morning and evening. As a Coloradoan, I have little experience with such matters, and frankly, fog looks great on film. The final part of my growth is the wondrous city I’m living in. It is not difficult to see why Prague is known as the most beautiful city in Europe, and although beautiful subjects don’t guarantee beautiful photos, they sure help.

So without further adieu, here are some artsy shots of Prague…

On my walk along the boardwalk (see Charles Bridge entry) I held my baby camera out over the rail to snap this shot.

I like this one because of the way the rail and the bridge converge on the people, who are roughly 1/3 off-center.

It was a foggy night, and I had my shot all planned out. I waited for my south-bound tram, but when I heard the north-bound coming I spun around and held the camera to the cold, steel lampost as a brace. *Click*. It worked.

I worked with this picture after-the-fact to augment the tram's headlight beams and bring out more detail like the graffiti on the wall. I like the way the row of street lights leads to the tram.

This is my new favorite picture from the trip. I awoke to fog, so I stuffed my big camera into my backpack figuring I would need it. I did. On my way across Mánesův Bridge, I could faintly make out Charles Bridge. Birds were swirling around the river. I knew the shot I wanted, and with frigid air stabbing at my fingers, I waited for it. Just as I was about to give up, it happened--a seagull darted into the air and banked into a turn. I got the shot and jogged the rest of the way to class.

Interestingly enough, the picture was virtually black and white as captured.

When the teacher announced a 15 minute break, I grabbed the camera out of my bag. Inspired by the success of the seagull shot, I ran down the three flights of steps and out the door for more pictures. The photo above was actually supposed to be a simple silhouette of the angel statue. It is that, but the picture held a surprise for me--the lamps circling the pillar. I was overjoyed when I noticed them on my laptop's LCD, like gems that had nestled their way into my photo.

Using my "digital darkroom" I dedicated the majority of the light-dark spectrum to those lamps at the expense of a whitish sky. I think it was worth it. I also tinted the photo yellow in the spirit of the lanterns.

The thick, prickly frost on the trees was gorgeous. It's as simple as that.

I worked for awhile on this one, playing games with colors in order to maximize the contrast between the trunk and the frost when converted to black and white.